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5/3 Raw TV results from Jacksonville, FL: Batista over Daniel Bryan in a beat the clock match; John Morrison over Ted DiBiase; John Cena over Wade Barrett in a beat the clock match; Maryse over Nikki Bella; Mark Henry over Zack Ryder; and The Hart Dynasty over William Regal & Kozlov.
Dark match was Evan Bourne over Dos Caras.

NVO News in India is reporting that Great Khali slapped a fan at the airport in Delhi on Saturday night. The fan was taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries, according to the report. Khali is denying any altercation saying that he pushed his way through a large group of people who were swarming around him. He is scheduled to visit his native village of Dhirayana on Wednesday as part of a three day publicity tour with national ministers and dignitaries.

The fan that was ejected during the weekend Smackdown show in Knoxville for slapping CM Punk is apparently a little old lady who is known locally for doing similar things at independent wrestling shows. We’re told her name is Mae (not Young). Before slapping Punk, the lady reportedly cried out, “You’re not Jesus!” You can’t even make this stuff up.

Speaking of crazy fans, Zavr Peygumbari, 22, from Brooklyn, NY was arrested on 4/30 after he threatened to blow up Titan Towers. He also threatened to visit the WWE offices and take care of business with a machete and machine gun, according to a published report in the Connecticut Post. This all came about after he discovered that WWE fired his favorite wrestler, Mickie James, so we know for sure it wasn’t Jim Cornette in disguise. Peygumbari was arraigned Monday afternoon and ordered not to contact WWE employees, go near its Stamford offices, or attend live events. His defense attorney, Mickey Sherman, described him as an enthusiastic WWE fan who did not intend to follow through on his threats. The charge list included four counts of fourth-degree threatening, one count of second-degree harassment and two counts of second-degree threatening. Peygumbari called WWE offices several times between 4/24 and 4/27 demanding answers as to why Mickie James had been let go. During one call he threatened to kill a WWE employee and his entire family. Peygumbari was caught when police arrested him in New York City on marijuana charges and they matched his cell phone number to the number that had been making the threatening calls. Police described him as being, “emotionally disturbed.” Peygumbari is due back in court on 5/25.

Some of the crew flying out today have been warned to stay in the hotels due to fear of kidnappings.

Vince McMahon hosted WWE’s AGM on 4/30 at the WWE offices in Stamford.
Nothing too noteworthy. Regarding the proposed television network, Vince said they have a business plan they are executing, didn’t give a projected launch date, and also alluded to several non-wrestling shows they have at the developmental stage. He said they hoped to find a new home for NXT when Smackdown moves to SyFy in the fall. “It’s not going to disappear, but it might move to another network,” he said. He claimed he doesn’t plan on ever wrestling again, but admitted he’s said that after every match he’s had in the past. On declining pay-per-view buys, he blamed people gathering in groups to save money and joked that they need to figure out a way to encourage people to forget their neighbors and watch by themselves. When questioned if the recent $5 price increase made business sense in the economic climate, he again blamed too many people watching in groups but believes they are the best bargain in the market place. He also announced a new promotional deal with Burger King to offer themed kid’s meal with toys. The promotion is expected to run in August geared around Summerslam.

Bret Hart noted last night on Ardca Ocal’s radio show that as far as he knows his last WWE booking is the 5/17 Raw from Toronto–the show which will be promoted as his Canadian homecoming. He said he’s very happy with WWE since he returned so would be open to working future dates if they asked. Full interview at http://tinyurl.com/3axhkff.

Songwriter Anthony Dash is suing boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Mayweather Promotions), WWE and Philthy Rich Records, Inc. for allegedly violating the copyright of his song, which was used as Mayweather’s entrance music at Wrestlemania 24. Court documents filed on 4/26 in South Carolina claim that Dash copyrighted the tune in 2005. He wants $150,000 in compensation plus an account of all gains, profits and advantages from the alleged act of infringement. Dash believes that millions of dollars have been made from his music and he also alleges that Mayweather has ignored two cease and desist letters.

Crash by Fit for Rivals is the official theme song for the upcoming Over the Limit pay-per-view.

Some new additions to the developmental roster in Tampa–all these guys we know very little about: Rhys Ali (Reon Mahima, trained by Afa), Jacob Novak (from the FCW school), Devin Allen (no clue), and Jackson Andrews (Steve Slocum, no clue). Also, Orlando Colon (cousin of Carlito & Primo) is now known as Tito Colon after dropping the name Nieves, and Joe Doering is now using the name Drake Brewer.

Smackdown on 4/23 did a 1.8 rating and 3.1 million viewers. The show was listed No. 27 for syndicated shows for the week ending 4/25. I believe this is the first time ever Smackdown hasn’t cracked the Top 25 which is likely due to all the preemptions.

TNA President Dixie Carter promised a major announcement last night, shortly before Impact, that she described as the next step in the evolution of the TNA brand. As it turned out, this next step is for Impact to move back to Thursday nights. The move ultimately was the decision of Spike TV although talent was specifically told during a meeting yesterday that this wasn’t the case, and there was even a Spike rep on hand to sell the locker room on this story. Technically they had never left Thursday nights but with the replay airing starting to draw more viewers than the live airings this clearly was the right decision.
TNA management also said that the decision was based on market research the company did where fans told them they wanted to watch Impact on Thursdays. The funny thing here is that the company had originally sold Spike on the idea of moving to Monday nights, claiming that this was THE night for wrestling, and this move was the only way they could increase viewership long term. Spike’s Brian Diamond said in a press release distributed late last night: “The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best timeslot to maximise the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men.” The plan moving forward is to position TNA on Thursday nights as a three-hour block from 6/24 with the new show Reaction at 8pm followed by Impact 9-11pm.

Impact last night did a 0.78 rating and 1.1 million viewers.

Regarding online fan voting, it wasn’t mentioned on television that Desmond Wolfe got the title shot this week because he garnered the most votes. 500,000+ votes were polled and are still being polled as nobody has bothered to close the poll. Ironically, Jeff Hardy is now ahead of Wolfe in that deal. The new poll for the next title shot currently has Wolfe (23%) again leading the way closely followed by Matt Morgan of all people (22%) and Hardy (15%) next behind. There also appears to be many comedy votes for Rhino (remember him?) as he’s currently ahead of The Pope, Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett and AJ Styles. Poor Abyss has the second least amount of votes ahead slightly of Brother Devon.

The updated line up for next Sunday’s Sacrifice pay-per-view is RVD vs.
AJ Styles for the heavyweight title; Mr. Anderson (replacing the injured
Pope) vs. Jeff Hardy; Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett; Matt Morgan & mystery partner vs. Ink Inc. for the tag titles; Kazarian vs. Doug Williams for the X-Division title; Madison Rayne vs. Tara for the Knockouts title in a title vs. career match; and Desmond Wolfe vs. Abyss with Wolfe’s valet, Chelsea, on the line against Abyss’s WWE Hall of Fame ring.

There is talk of a wrestling reality show concept being developed this summer for Spike by Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment. I assume this would be in a samilar vein to that of Tough Enough.

Abyss and Christopher Daniels are booked for Triplemania XVIII in Mexico City on 6/6. This is traditionally AAA’s biggest wrestling show of the year in Mexico. The focal point of the event will be a match between L.A. Park and La Parka with a stipulation yet to be determined as well as Electroshock defending the AAA heavyweight title against Dr. Wagner, Jr.

Former WWE/ECW wrestler 2 Cold Scorpio was backstage at the Impact Zone visiting last night. There were reports that Lex Luger (who resides in
Atlanta) was in town although nobody spotted him near the tapings. Reid Flair was also hanging out backstage.

The company may be doing some kind of fund raising activity to help victims of the floods in Nashville.

The Fayetteville Observer has a story on Jeff Hardy’s pending legal issues at http://tinyurl.com/3yu99za. Hardy is due back in court next week in North Carolina to answer multiple drug charges. Carolinas promoter Greg Price is quoted in the story saying he doesn’t think the case will do anything to hurt Hardy’s wrestling career. Well, it won’t hurt his career if he avoids jail time.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

Spike TV’s new wrestling-related series Half Pint Brawlers is scheduled to debut on 6/2 at 11pm.

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